.S. federal budget deficit yr-to-date $927 bln

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. government ran a $57.6 billion budget deficit in May, the Treasury Department reported Friday. A year ago in May the deficit was $135.9 billion. Receipts were $175 billion in May, the Treasury said, about $28 billion higher than receipts in May 2010. Outlays were $233 billion. This is $50 billion lower compared with a year earlier. Most of the improvement in outlays came from a downward estimate in the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The May deficit was very close to a congressional estimate. For the first eight months of the fiscal year, the government incurred a budget deficit of $927 billion, $8 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last year.